Barts and The London Skin Centre >> Our clinical services

Our clinical services

At Barts and The London Skin Centre, we are committed to offering individualised care for a wide range of skin diseases, including skin cancer, in both adults and children.

The dermatology department is one of the largest in the UK and the second biggest in London, with 12 consultants, six specialist registrars and 10 nurses/healthcare assistants. The service is largely outpatient based, operating a ‘hub and spoke’ system with the surrounding district general hospitals and extending as far as Southend in Essex. We have five inpatient beds on Phyllis Friend ward at The Royal London Hospital for patients with severe life-threatening skin conditions.

We provide the services listed below – please click on the links below for more information.

Children’s services (including treatment of eczema)
Skin cancer
Severe psoriasis clinics
Photobiology and phototherapy clinic
Specialist dermatology surgery
Patch test/Skin allergy clinics
Skin problems in patients with organ transplants
Psychodermatology
Joint sexual health clinics
Genetic skin disease (including diagnosis and treatment of keratodermas, ichthyoses, and other skin disorders)
Dermatopathology
Joint gynaecology skin clinic

Severe psoriasis clinics

There is more treatment for psoriasis now than ever before. These include a dedicated specialist nurse-led phototherapy day centre, and full range of topical and systemic (oral and injected) biological therapy.

Photobiology and phototherapy clinic

Barts and The London Skin Centre is one of only two specialist centres in London that provide a specialist referral service for the diagnosis and management of patients with abnormal photosensitivity (sensitivity to sunlight causing an allergic reaction). The clinic also offers phototherapy (treatment involving gradual increases of ultraviolet light to the skin in a precise controlled fashion) for inflammatory skin conditions. We have up-to-date equipment available for the treatment of certain skin conditions, such as psoriasis and eczema, with light therapy. This includes both the recently installed narrowband TL01 machine – a means of delivering ultraviolet B light to the skin – and PUVA, which involves giving the plant extract psorelin plus light from an UVA (PUVA) machine for more difficult conditions.

Specialist dermatology surgery

We provide Botox treatment for excessive sweating (hyperhidrosis) on the NHS, which is unique in London. This is a hugely popular service which results in high patient satisfaction.

Patch test/skin allergy clinics

Some skin diseases can be caused by an allergy. If we can identify an allergy, this offers the chance of a cure for a person’s skin problem. In these weekly clinics, we can do patch testing, RAST testing and skin prick testing. Suitable patients for this clinic are those with long standing, difficult to manage eczema, facial or hand eczema, ano-genital eczema, patients having reactions to ear or eye drops, those with an acute onset of new eczema and people who have work-related skin problems. We can also investigate suspected latex allergy. Often patients have negative allergy tests but still find this to be helpful and reassuring. A recent audit showed 95% of patients who underwent patch testing thought it was useful and worthwhile.

Food allergy testing, or allergy to oral medications or bee/wasp stings, is conducted by our allergy centre. All referrals should be made to the allergy centre at the London Chest Hospital.

Skin problems in patients with organ transplants

We run a dedicated transplant skin clinic – the first such clinic in the UK. Click here for more information.

Psychodermatology

We run a skin and psychiatry clinic with dedicated dermatology and psychiatric staff for patients with skin disease and psychiatric problems. This clinic is unique in London in having both specialists working together with this group of patients. This service is happy to receive referrals from around the country (especially from London, the South and South East). The psychodermatology clinic has expertise in the management of delusional parasitosis, body dysmorphic disorder, dermatitis artefacta, delusions of body odour and other primarily psychiatric disorders. In addition, we see patients with primarily dermatological disease who have an underlying psychological component such as a patient with psoriasis who is depressed.

Joint sexual health clinics

HIV-related skin clinic: We run a weekly specialist clinic to manage complex skin disorders linked to HIV infection and AIDS. This has been developed as skin disease is very common due to HIV infection and also the new drug treatments for AIDS. It is one of only two such specialist clinics in the UK and is consultant-led by Dr David Paige. Click here for more information about our Sexual Health services.

Male genital clinic: We run a specialist monthly clinic for skin problems of the male genitalia. This is jointly run by Dr David Paige (dermatology) and Dr Martin Hourihan (sexual health medicine) in the Ambrose King Centre, next to The Royal London Hospital. This is a tertiary referral clinic accepting referrals from other dermatology, sexual health medicine or urology doctors.

Genetic skin disease clinic

This is a new NHS clinic which was previously a research clinic to see patients with genetic skin disease. We receive referrals from GPs and other hospitals from all over the UK and sometimes abroad, and offer diagnosis and treatment for a range of inherited skin diseases.

Dr Edel O’Toole sees patients with different types of ichthyosis (inherited scaly, dry skin), keratodermas (thickened skin on the hands and feet), pachyonychia congenita (affects palms, soles, nails and sometimes mouth) and other inherited skin disorders. We perform genetic analysis for many of these disorders and can also liaise with other laboratories in the UK and abroad for specific tests if necessary.

Dermatopathology

Prof Rino Cerio is the only Professor of Dermatopathology in the UK and has an international reputation. We have a national/international reputation in the area of skin cancer in immunosuppressed individuals. Dermatopathology (microscopic clinical dermatology) is crucial to the management of many skin diseases and mandatory in suspected skin cancer. Diagnosis, which determines how a disease is treated, is often confirmed and also dependent on dermatopathology expertise.

Gynaecology skin clinic

Dr Karen Gibbon runs clinics four times each month at The Royal London Hospital for general skin problems of the vulva, and specialist cancer clinics are held monthly at Barts Hospital with our gynaecology specialists.